Economics Wisconsin

Home


Wisconsin Economic Standard
D.8.7

Specialization and Trade

Identify the location of concentrations of selected natural resources and describe how their acquisition and distribution generates trade and shapes economic patterns

Economic Concepts
Natural resources  ||  Trade  ||  Interdependence  ||  Comparative advantage  ||  Location decisions

green line

green line 

Links to Content Information

blue check mark 1999 Country Reports on Economic Policy and Trade - These reports, developed by the U.S. Department of State for Congress, provide information on 77 countries with which America trades. The reports contain Key Economic Indicators and other information important for business and setting economic policy.
blue check mark CIA World Factbook - Contains the following categories of information about the world's nations: Current issues, Historical perspective, Geography, People, Government, Economy, Communications, Transportation, Military, and Transnational issues.
blue check mark E-Conflict World Encyclopedia - For countries of the world countries, includes sections on economy, defense, geography, government, history, people, and national anthems.
blue check mark Economic interdependency among world communities - An explanation for teachers and a student activity for grades 6-8.
blue check mark The relationship between available resources and the production of goods and services - An explanation for teachers and a student activity for grades 4-5.

green line

Links to Lesson Plans and other Suggested Teaching Strategies

blue arrow Frontier Specialists - Grades 6-8. Students will identify the benefits of specialization, explain why specialization creates interdependence, identify absolute advantage, calculate comparative advantage, and explain how comparative advantage leads to specialization and trade.
blue arrow The Silk Route - Grades 3-5.  Economic Concepts: Resources, Trade, Interdependence
blue arrow Why Nations Trade - Middle and High School level.  After discussing the concept of comparative advantage, students in small groups engage in a simulation on the economic costs and benefits of trade. From Focus on Economics: Geography, ©National Council on Economic Education.
blue arrow World Trade Imports - Grades 6-8. This lesson will help students understand that many of their everyday items are imported from many different countries.

green line

List of Curricular Materials and Learning Activities

blue push pin Econ and Me - Grades 3-6. An award-winning program of five 15-minute, sequentially arranged video lessons, each focusing on a specific economic concept: scarcity, opportunity cost, consumption, production, and interdependence.  Also included are two videotapes with background information for teachers.  From Economics America (search catalogue).
blue push pin Focus on Economics: Geography, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin. Relevant lessons: 
  • Lesson 1, pp.1-11:  Where in the World? - A game reinforces the knowledge of the source country of various products.
  • Lesson 3, pp.20-29:  Why Nations Trade - A simulation helps students assess the economic benefits and/or costs of decisions countries make about specialization.
blue push pin Economics for the Elementary Classroom by Elaine C. Coulson and Sarapage McCorkle, 1982. St. Louis, MO: SPEC Publishers.  The following lessons for grades 2-6: 
    * Be Resourceful - pp. 68-69 
    * Specialized States - pp. 120-125 
    * Production Possibilities - pp. 70-75 
    * Outputs - Inputs - pp. 175-176
blue push pin Economics and the Environment: Eco-Detectives, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Lesson 1--The Problem of the Homeless Salmon - Students consider the reasons the salmon population is declining, based on benefits, costs, and incentives, pp.1-12
blue push pin Economics and the Environment, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin.  Relevant lessons: 
  • Unit 5, Lesson 12:  Negotiate or Take Them to Court? - Students explore the possibilities and limitations of negotiation and court rulings as they relate to decisions concerning the most valued use of natural resources.  p.136
  • Unit 6, Lesson 15:  Students learn how people making decisions in the market for a nonrenewable resource decide when the resource will be used; they also learn how the price of the resource reflects its growing scarcity.  p.172
  • Unit 7, Lesson 18:  Recycling: A Tale of Two Markets - Students look at the two markets (collection and reprocessing) through which recyclable materials pass; they learn how costs are reflected, and why too much of a good thing can sometimes be a bad thing.  p.202
blue push pin Focus: International Economics, from Economics America (search catalogue), available from Economics Wisconsin. Relevant lessons: 
  • 2:  Why People and Nations Trade - Students apply the principle of comparative advantage to a hypothetical example of international trade.  p.7
  • 7:  World Trade - Students observe the patterns and direction of trade.  These observations allow them to understand some of the forces that give rise to international trade.  p.51
  • 13:  Where to Build a Factory - Students evaluate the factors that influence decisions about where to invest abroad.  p.103

green line

National Content Standards 5 and 6.

    Scroll down the linked pages to locate the grade 8 benchmarks.

green line

Email an expert

    Professor Mark Schug, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

green line

Developed by 
Lynn Kirby, Ph.D.
Larry Weiser, Ph.D.